Comedian John Mulaney is sharing new insight into his experiences with drug addiction and the way his wife, Olivia Munn, has lent her support as he continues in recovery.
The former writer and host on “Saturday Night Live” was selected by GQ as the magazine’s 2024 Man of the Year ― and, in the accompanying interview, opened up about his old drug habits, which he viewed as his attempts at “self-medication.”
“There was a time when I would have told you that I could not fly, sleep, or perform unless I had a Klonopin,” he explained. “I thought I had serious light sensitivity onstage. Spotlights had to be at a super-low grade. The front row had to be lit, because I thought I had a spatial… not vertigo, but something like that. I would have said, ‘It sucks, because I don’t always want to take Klonopin and Xanax, but I have to.’ ”
Mulaney began a relationship with Munn in 2021, shortly after he completed a 60-day stint in rehab for cocaine and alcohol abuse. When Munn became pregnant with the couple’s first child, son Malcolm, she began giving Mulaney random drug tests.
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Mulaney and Munn were married in July and welcomed a daughter, Méi, about two months later. As for Munn’s drug-testing practice, it continues to this day ― and the comedian has grown to be grateful for it.
“It’s like a relief,” he said. “I like to be able to not even have that be a question in her or anyone else’s mind. Something about peeing in that cup is like, I’m walking this walk. It gives me confidence.”
The Chicago native has been frank about his efforts to stay sober for years. In 2019, he told Esquire that he started drinking at 13 years old, mostly “for attention.” He began using cocaine and prescription drugs shortly thereafter.
“I wasn’t a good athlete, so maybe it was some young male thing of ‘This is the physical feat I can do. Three Vicodin and a tequila and I’m still standing,’” he said. “Who’s the athlete now?”
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In his GQ chat, he also reflected on a time when he’d done so much cocaine he feared for his life but was unable to take himself to the walk-in clinic nearby.
“I left the door to my apartment open. I can’t explain the logic, but I was going to hit the door buzzer and tell the doorman to run and get the paramedics,” he said. “I think I was worried I wouldn’t be able to dial and explain, and I didn’t want them to have to break the door down. I just sat on the rug and slowly came down. And I thought, Okay, this is insane. I’m going to totally slow down. That was like a Tuesday. And Thursday night, I did it again.”